Pianist and composer Steve Tromans has long been a cornerstone artist on the Birmingham jazz scene, and has also travelled widely as a musician and educator.
And sitarist Jonathan Mayer – son of Indo Jazz Fusions founder John Mayer – is an artist who also expertly blends the music of East And West.
They each presented new compositions in the Jennifer Blackwell Space at Symphony Hall, as part of the Extrapolate programme promoted by the organisation zerOclassikal. The project aims to redefine South Asian classical music by creating fresh concepts.
Tromans gave the premier of three-movement work, TALA ++, commissioned by zerOclassikal, and it featured him on a concert grand piano alongside two brilliant tabla players, Mitel Purohit and Denis Kucherov. This stimulating creation was a blend of East and West quite unlike any collaborations I’ve heard in the past.
Tromans’ earlier role in of John Mayer’s Indo-Jazz Fusions – including tours of India and Bangladesh – is the key to his latest venture. Although the piano is not the most obvious instrument to blend with Indian percussion, he has a very firm grip on the Indian genre, with its compelling – and strictly defined – beats and colourful scalar structure. The title of the work, he explained to me, not only references the traditional Indian system of counting beats – tala – but also has a deeper meaning, exploring a state of being.
With the two tabla players tuning their instruments in a perfect fifth, Tromans began to gently explore melodic fragments from a nine-note scale, with lovely arpeggio flourishes decorating gorgeously rippling tabla strokes. The second movement included a structure closer to modal jazz, while the third opened with simple triads on the piano before developing flowing phrases, with exciting interaction with the fiercely flowing tablas.
Mayer’s work Perseverance opened with the traditional ballad-like alapana, the slow exploration of the chosen scales on sitar, setting the mood and demonstrating the intense passion – whether dark of joyful – that is perhaps the most valuable element of the style.
Gradually joined by the tablas and Tromans’ subtle chords, Mayer created a tremendously exciting piece, certainly fulfilling his declared aim to “explore the vulnerability of hope in a world embroiled in harsh severity”.
His programme note added: “Music should allow you to think about the world around you, not just sound pretty.”
Absolutely . . . but the playing of all four musicians was undeniably beautiful.
